A 2020 survey from the American Bar Association reports that 87% of responding law firms stated that they have a website. However, not all law firms take the time to set up an annual marketing budget to make them as competitive as possible in an increasingly virtual world.
Larger firms are more likely to have marketing budgets, and less than half of law firms of all sizes have one at all.
One of the most important aspects of digital marketing for law firms in this day and age is local SEO. Why is SEO for lawyers so important?
It can radically change your website traffic, client base, and business over time, but let’s explore what local SEO is and how it can benefit your firm.
What Is SEO?
In the digital marketing world, you’ll hear the term “SEO” constantly, which stands for “search engine optimization.” What does this mean, exactly?
Basically, search engines like Google have bots that are endlessly crawling web pages collecting and indexing information. Then there are algorithms that analyze the index’s pages to determine the order they should appear in while taking into account hundreds of ranking factors.
These algorithms exist with the intent of uncovering the most authoritative and relevant pages to each query. This provides an efficient and sufficient search experience for the user.
SEO is the practice of optimizing your site so that you can organically rank higher in relevant search results.
What Is Local SEO?
Many online businesses are internet-based, meaning that they want their pages to come up in search engine results no matter where a browser lives. For locally-based companies, though, it makes sense to optimize your website for your specific local area.
Local audiences will be entering different search queries than a broader audience. This means that you’ll want to be sure that you are ranking for the right search terms that direct people in your area to your website.
Benefits of SEO For Law Firms
When you’re looking to hire a company or purchase a product, what do you normally do first? If you’re like four out of five consumers, you probably perform local searches on search engines to help find the right business.
Still wondering “why is SEO important?” Let’s take a look at local SEO benefits and why it might be right for your law firm.
Outrank Your Local Competition
For people that have online-based businesses, they are competing with the entire world when it comes to finding customers. As a local law firm, your pool of clients is limited to individuals who are in your general geographic area.
Chances are, you aren’t the only law firm in town though. When you boost your local SEO, you can ensure that you outrank your competition for all of your relevant search terms. This means that more often than not, clients will be calling you instead of the other guy.
Generate New Traffic
The higher you rank on Google or Bing search results, the more traffic you will receive. When you create high-quality localized content, you’ll notice your traffic numbers increasing significantly.
Collecting Positive Client Reviews
When you have a website that is SEO optimized, you’ll end up getting more traffic, more leads, and more clients. With it easy for people to find your site and request your services, it will also be easy for them to leave feedback.
As a part of your SEO strategy, you might consider lightly encouraging your satisfied clients to leave reviews on your website and on places like Google Business. This is valuable information that can help other people determine whether or not they’d like to use your services in the future. The more reviews you have, the more legitimate and reputable it makes your law firm seem, so turning your happy customers into written positive reviews is always a positive.
Turning Traffic Into Leads and Clients
The more localized traffic you’re getting to your website, the more you’ll notice your phone will be ringing and your online forms will be filled out. People have to know about your law firm in order to contact you, and the higher you rank on Google the more likely they will be to reach out to you.
Did you know that the top three spots on a Google search result page get 58.4% of all the clicks from users? Even though each result normally gets hundreds if not thousands of results, almost all users will settle on one of the first three choices. Ensuring that you rank highly on Google will mean you end up with way more leads.
Becoming Authority in Your Niche
One of the benefits of SEO is that it can help to build your reputation as an authority in your field. It can be quite competitive to get your law firm ranked in one of the top spots on search engines, but it’s well worth the effort. This is because the higher you are ranked, the more trustworthy you come off as to browsers.
Local SEO Works For You 24/7
One of the SEO benefits that is worth considering is the fact that it’s working for you all day, every day. Radio ads, TV ads, newspaper ads, and other print advertising are only useful if your target market happens to come across them, and your business can only be open so many hours during the week to answer prospective client questions. When you utilize local SEO strategies, though, it means that you basically have a 24/7 salesperson ready to tell your local audience about your services.
SEO For Lawyers: Is It Time For Your Firm to Take Your Marketing to the Next Level?
As you can see, there are numerous local SEO benefits that can help your law firm succeed in this modern era. Rather than trying to take it on as a job on your own, you might consider hiring an SEO company or a digital marketing agency to help with your efforts.